Poet Profile

Peggy Willis Lyles

September 17, 1939 - September 3, 2010

Peggy Willis Lyles was born in Summerville, South Carolina and, at the time of her death, lived in Tucker, Georgia. She graduated cum laude from Columbia College, attended The Citadel and the College of Charleston, and obtained her MA degree from Tulane University on a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. She taught English at Sophie Newcomb College, and subsequently was a faculty member in the English department at the University of Georgia. She contributed regularly to leading haiku journals for more than thirty years. She was an associate editor of The Heron's Nest and was a member of The Red Moon Anthology staff. Peggy was revered by haiku poets worldwide. Her gentle, generous spirit touched so many, and her work will continue to touch and influence for countless decades to come.